Bandai Namco gives Richmond students crash course in game development

Bandai Namco Entertainment has announced it's been working with The Falcons School in Richmond, Surrey, to help its pupils learn about games development, games publishing, careers across the industry and how Bandai Namco's distribution business works across its games, arcades and toys businesses.

Over 40 Year 7 and 8 students from the boys school spent the day with Bandai Namco, sitting in on presentations about how the video games market has evolved since the 1950s through to present day, as well as a history lesson on the birth of Pac-man. They also learned how a global business like Bandai Namco is run, as well as what kind of careers are available in entertainment.

The students were then challenged to develop a brand new game and set of characters inspired by Pac-man. They spent the day brain-storming their creations, including game titles, genre, story, synopsis, controls, commands and design, and will now spend the next two weeks developing their game in their spare time before presenting it to a committee and their school assembly on January 27th.

The top three teams will then be awarded a certificate as well as a school award, and their concepts will be framed in the school.

“I was incredibly excited to work on this project with the Head of English and the Upper School, Ellie Challis from ‘The Falcons School for Boys’," Bandai Namco Entertainment UK's PR and marketing director Lee Kirton said.

"Young minds are incredibly impressive and new generations are important to the future of entertainment, innovation, understanding technology and being creative. This is something I am proud to have put together with the school and presenting to the boys was a delight. I’m very proud to have assisted in their English studies whilst giving them something fun, challenging and creative to work on. I’m looking forward to seeing the final presentations.”

Ellie Challis, head of English and the upper school for The Falcons School for Boys added: “Working with Lee Kirton and the team at Bandai Namco Entertainment has been a privilege and a completely unique experience for the Upper School Falcons boys.

"The staff have all agreed that they were so proud to see all the boys working so enthusiastically on their projects in the Bandai Namco Entertainment offices on Friday 13th January. The boys were most enthused by the passionate and informative presentation Lee Kirton gave at the start of the day and this then propelled them into working diligently in their groups, coming up with some very innovative ideas! We are very excited about the presentations on Friday 27th January and look forward to the feedback Lee and his team will give the boys.”